Association of Washington Cities Municipal Excellence Awards 2007
CITY OF KIRKLAND
UTILITY INFRASTRUCTURE DATA MANAGEMENT
PROJECT STATEMENT AND PROJECT SUMMARY
PROJECT STATEMENT_______________________________________________________
The City of Kirkland has dramatically improved its utility infrastructure operation by linking a robotic video
camera with its asset management and geographic information systems. These tools provide staff a detailed
view of storm and sanitary sewer pipe condition, helping them quickly and accurately assess structures
needing rehabilitation or replacement.
PROJECT SUMMARY_________________________________________________________
The City of Kirkland has reached a major milestone in implementing its citywide geographic
information system (GIS) by linking the enterprise GIS to two other Public Works mission-critical
applications: the maintenance management information system (MMIS) and a vehicle-contained
video recording system.
Accurate and readily available utility information is a primary component of many city business
needs, including:
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Private property development
Public safety
Utility operation and maintenance
Capital planning
Parks and recreation
Environmental compliance
For utility information, city staff has leveraged the GIS to great advantage for two business
applications that also require comprehensive asset databases in order to function. First, the
maintenance management information system (MMIS) stores structural characteristics, work orders,
service requests, and other records pertaining to operation and maintenance of the infrastructure.
City GIS staff processed and “pushed” high-quality GIS utility data to the MMIS, resulting in a
significant savings in data entry and a consistently high quality level. In a subsequent step, GIS
staff performed a similar data load to the second business application, a remotely controlled video
recording system that is compatible with both the MMIS and GIS. For underground storm and
wastewater facilities, robotic video is the only feasible technique for remotely viewing, recording,
and assessing pipe condition. The GIS, MMIS, and video system all reference the same utility data,
and thus operations and maintenance (O&M) crews and office staff alike can now plan and
complete their tasks more easily and at a higher confidence level than before these tools were
available.
GIS and Business
System Integration
MMIS
(Hansen)
GIS
(Database
And
Viewer)
Work orders,
data transferring
Data loading
and accessing
Video
Inspection
(GraniteXp)
Use of these interwoven technologies has resulted in some startling discoveries. One example is the
occasional intersecting natural gas service line, where a developer has unknowingly drilled through
an existing storm or wastewater pipe. Video inspection and recording allows city staff to respond
quickly to these potentially lethal situations and effectively initiate corrective actions.
Another beneficial outcome is the detection of leaks, where the usual conveyance of surface runoff
or sewage is interrupted by breaks, cracks, separated pipes, etc. Depending on subsurface soil
types, slope, and other factors that are easily seen through the comparison with the GIS, instances of
failing utility pipes can pose a major health and safety risk to the community if not detected and
repaired promptly.
Utility staff has also used the GIS-MMIS-video combination to locate high-priority maintenance
targets, such as roots and fat-oil-grease (FOG) obstructions, rodent infestations, and structural
deterioration. Before the implementation of sophisticated technology tools, knowledge of these
occurrences was limited and city responses were naturally delayed. The city can now point to a
superior GIS data inventory and MMIS/video linkage specifically designed to streamline utility
work, whether routine or extraordinary.
The city’s project approach has clearly enhanced its services to the community and other agencies.
Customers experiencing blocked sewer or storm connections are now able to get quicker, more
responsive city assistance in tracing the location of their problem. City utility map products have
proven indispensable in responding to emergency events such as gas line breaks, power outages,
and flooding. Other agencies such as the Washington State DOT, neighboring cities, King County,
and nearby utility districts have also benefited from Kirkland’s GIS utility data and related
technology products and services.
Kirkland’s storm and wastewater networks are the focus of this project. The city planned, designed,
and constructed the storm/wastewater project based on a number of goals:
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Use collaborative team approach (4 departments)
Take advantage of staff knowledge and technical skills
Commit to high-quality, sustainable data standard
Integrate GIS effort with other business applications
Demonstrate improved city services
The project ultimately succeeded in meeting these goals because of the team approach, especially
the involvement of O&M staff. These individuals contributed in-depth knowledge of their daily
workflows, known facility nuances and anomalies, and usability of available records. They
evaluated existing utility data sources, which led to the decision to forego the usual GIS approach of
digitizing existing source maps. Instead, the city collected new information from direct field
observations and measurements. Maintenance staff participation not only increased the quality and
accuracy of the final product, but also gave them significant ownership in the final project outcome
and products.
The project approach included downloading GIS data (high-resolution orthophotography, parcels,
hydrography, utility template) onto personal digital assistants (PDAs), which utility O&M staff then
took to the field for data collection (Plate 1). The mapping procedures were straightforward enough
that the field mapping group experienced a relatively minor learning curve in accomplishing their
assigned task. Because of PDA storage limitations at the time, GIS and field data had to be
uploaded/downloaded frequently, but these logistics were easily managed by city GIS staff. City
GIS analysts processed raw data files from the field mapping using a variety of quality control tools,
and then inserted these into the master database. Finally, staff loaded the final GIS data sets into
both the video and MMIS programs for production use.
Handheld HP IPAQ PDA
Utility features visible
on orthoimagery (4”
pixel resolution; May
2002 photography)
Plate 1.
GIS Connection: Hansen MMIS
Field-to-field “mapping”
Plate 2.
Video equipment vehicle
GIS Connection: Granite XP Video Inspection
Plate 3.
Kirkland completed its storm/wastewater project, including the integration with video and MMIS
applications, well under the target budget of $130,000 (excluding purchase of the MMIS and video
equipment). The storm sewer field mapping required the most calendar time due to startup planning
and training and the system complexity, whereas the wastewater portion of the project was
completed in only five months. The city has since applied many of the lessons learned from this
project to other infrastructure such as water utility, streetlights, traffic signals and signs, sidewalks,
street trees, public grounds maintenance, etc. to provide similar enhancements to these city services.
The city is also considering adding to its GIS storm utilities on private sites, the WSDOT right of
way (two major freeways), and possibly a six-square-mile potential annexation area.
Kirkland continues to seek innovative and cost-effective ways to keep its infrastructure information
accurate, current, and accessible in as many formats as possible, to ensure that the investment to
date continues to support city services and community needs.